PRESS RELEASE Date of issue: 14th December 2011

OVER HALF THE NATION’S COLLECTION OF PAINTINGS NOW ONLINE

THE PUBLIC HELPING TO CATALOGUE THE ART

Your Paintings is the first national online museum of all publicly owned oil

paintings in the UK. It was launched in June of this year (2011) by the Public

Catalogue Foundation (PCF) and the BBC. Today it has been announced that a further 40,000 paintings have been uploaded to the site since the launch,

taking the total to 104,000 paintings, over half the national collection.

Among the latest painting images uploaded to the site are works by Thomas Brooks (RNLI Grace Darling Museum, Northumberland), Edgar Degas (The

Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham), Joshua Reynolds (The University of Aberdeen), Bridget Riley (Morley College, London), Peter Paul Rubens

(National Trust, Saltram, Devon) and Henry Whiting‟s Man Wrestling an Alligator from Dingles Fairground Heritage Centre, a world-class collection of

British fairground art from the 1880s to the 1980s. In total the works of over 23,000 artists can now be seen on the site.

Your Paintings is the world‟s most ambitious initiative to bring an entire

nation‟s painting collection to the public online. The UK‟s collection is an

estimated 200,000 oil paintings, held in 3,000 galleries, museums, libraries and public institutions, making it one of the largest and most diverse

collections in the world.

Your Paintings is interactive and fully searchable by artist, collection and

location, and is enriched with links to the BBC‟s formidable archive of TV, radio and online resources. It provides links to the collections themselves

and encourages users to visit the paintings in person.

To make the site searchable by subject matter over 5,000 members of the public have already signed up as taggers, alongside curators and experts,

participating in the enormous task of cataloguing the collection online. These Taggers have already entered over 1.3m tags into the system. Tagging,

using the latest crowd–sourcing techniques, is revealing a fascinating new layer of rich, and ultimately shareable, data, that will allow searches for a

huge range of subject matter across the website.

Your Paintings has recently been recognised at the 2011 British Interactive Media Awards (BIMA), winning first prize in the Arts and Culture category.

Your Paintings reached on average 125,000 unique monthly browsers, in the first three months after launch. (91,000 unique monthly browsers in the

UK).

Mark Thompson, Director General, BBC, said “I am delighted that Your Paintings has reached this impressive milestone. The website that we have

created in partnership with the Public Catalogue Foundation is an important commitment to the cultural sector and a significant example of how the BBC

can help in the creation of a digital public space.”

Andrew Ellis, Director, the Public Catalogue Foundation, said “Your Paintings is a worldwide showcase of the United Kingdom‟s paintings. The public are

invited to play an important role in building and enhancing this website. By tagging what can be seen in each work, everyone can contribute to making

Your Paintings a unique and rich learning resource.”

Your Paintings bbc.co.uk/yourpaintings

Media Enquiries and Press Image Requests: Jane Quinn/Matthew Brown

Bolton & Quinn 020 7221 5000

jq@boltonquinn.com/matthew@boltonquinn.com

Notes to Editors

About Your Paintings

Your Paintings is a partnership project between the BBC and the Public Catalogue

Foundation (PCF) to put the United Kingdom‟s entire collection of oil paintings

online at www.bbc.co.uk/yourpaintings. This website is emerging as a unique

learning resource, showing not only photographs and information about each

painting but also selected BBC TV archive footage and links to further information.

The website was launched at the National Gallery in the summer of 2011. Currently,

the site shows around 104,000 paintings from 1,400 collections.

In total , the national oil painting collection amounts to some 200,000 works, held

in 3,000 galleries, museums, universities, hospitals and other public institutions

from across the UK, making it one of the largest and most diverse collections of

paintings in the world. The plan is for all these paintings to be online by the end of

2012.

With the help of crowd-sourcing technology pioneered by the Astrophysics

Department at the University of Oxford to classify galaxies, and art historical input

from the University of Glasgow, the public are being invited to go online and help

classify or „tag‟ the paintings catalogued by the PCF so that in due course the

paintings can be searchable by subject matter. Paintings can be tagged by visiting

http://tagger.thepcf.org.uk/

About the Public Catalogue Foundation

The PCF is a registered charity. It was launched in 2003 to create a photographic

record of all the oil paintings in public ownership in the United Kingdom. In addition

to publishing its work online, the PCF is also publishing a series of printed

catalogues.

The painstaking research to locate the paintings up and down the country and

collate the data has been carried out by 50 researchers. Over 30 fine art

photographers have been employed to take photographs of these paintings over the

life of the project. London-based staff focus on fundraising, processing and editing

the data that comes in from the field, and clearing copyright.

The PCF is funded principally by grants and donations. Under 20 per cent of its

funding comes from the public sector. Whilst many hundreds of individuals and

institutions have supported its work, the PCF‟s principal funders are Arts Council

England, Christie‟s, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, the Garfield Weston

Foundation, the J Paul Getty Jnr Charitable Trust, The Monument Trust, the Stavros

Niarchos Foundation and the Wolfson Foundation.

The PCF was founded by Dr Fred Hohler. Its Trustees are Charles Gregson

(Chairman of the PCF), Robert Hiscox (Chairman of Hiscox plc), Menna McGregor

(Clerk of the Mercers‟ company), Alex Morrison (Founder and Managing Director of

Cogapp), Richard Roundell (Vice-Chairman of Christie‟s UK), Marc Sands (Director

of Audiences and Media at Tate), Dr Charles Saumarez Smith (Chief Executive of

the Royal Academy), Graham Southern ( Founding Director of Blain Southern) and

the artist Alison Watt. The Director is Andrew Ellis.

For more information go to www.thepcf.org.uk

About BBC Online

BBC Online is BBC‟s portfolio of websites, available at bbc.co.uk. It comprises ten

Products – News, Sport, Weather, CBBC, CBeebies, Knowledge & Learning,

Homepage, Search, TV & iPlayer and Radio & Music. In April 2011 it had 31.7

million unique browsers and was the fourth most popular website in the UK. It is

the only UK-owned website in the UK top ten. Your Paintings is part of Knowledge &

Learning.

The BBC creates partnerships with the arts sector that go beyond broadcast, from

sharing expertise to widening public engagement in UK arts.

A small selection of the paintings recently added to Your Paintings

Press images of the paintings below are available from Katie Carder at katie.carder@thepcf.org.uk or on

020 7395 0338

Reynolds, Joshua 1723–1792 Dr James Beattie (1735–1803) 1773 Oil on canvas 122 x 155cm The University of Aberdeen In 1807, after a 20-year fight by British and African activists, Britain finally banned the slave trade. Slavery was still permitted in British territories, but planters could not import new slaves from Africa. Many North East Scots joined the fight to abolish the slave trade. In 1770 Dr James Beattie, a philosopher at Marischal College, became one of the first public figures to argue that slavery was morally wrong. Collection contact: Shona Elliott (museums@abdn.ac.uk)

Gheeraerts the younger, Marcus 1561/1562–1635/1636 Sir Alexander Carew (1608–1644), 2nd Bt c.1630 Oil on canvas 190 x 107cm National Trust, Antony, Cornwall

The person represented in this portrait was cut out of the painting‟s frame by his Royalist relatives in the English Civil War when he took the side of Parliament. However, after switching his allegiance back to the crown, he was captured by the Roundheads and beheaded at Tower Hill. Having thus become a Royalist hero, his picture was sewn together again and restored to its frame; the crude stitches can be seen to this day. It was accepted in lieu in 2005 on the estate of Sir John Carew Pole (1902–1993), 12th Bt and remains at Antony, Cornwall.

Collection contact: Claire Bolitho (claire.bolitho@nationaltrust.org.uk)

Rubens, Peter Paul 1577–1640 Marchesa Maria Serra Pallavicino 1606 Oil on canvas 233 x 145cm National Trust, Kingston Lacy, Dorset

This must be one of the most stunningly lavish portraits ever painted. The inscription (D[ono] D[edit]) implies that Rubens painted this as a gift during one of his visits to Genoa. It was acquired by William Bankes (1786–1855) for Kingston Lacy in 1840, thought to be of the marchesa Isabella Grimaldi. The original identity of the lady, dressed for a sumptuous banquet and ball, was lost until research into the heraldic motifs of the curtain drawn up above the sitter‟s head. This research identified her as Maria Serra, the wife of Niccolò Pallavicino, banker and host to Rubens‟s employer, Duke Vincenzo I Gonzaga of Mantua.

Collection contact: Allan King (allan.king@nationaltrust.org.uk)

Brooks, Thomas 1818–1892 Grace Darling (1815–1842) Oil on canvas 60 x 78cm RNLI Grace Darling Museum, Northumberland Grace Darling was 22 years old when she risked her life in an open boat to help the survivors of the wrecked SS ‘Forfarshire’ on 7 September 1838. As inhabitants of the Longstone lighthouse on the Farne Islands, Grace and her father rowed for over a mile through raging seas to reach the „Forfarshire’. Grace was the media celebrity of her day and was showered with honours. This painting shows Grace rowing heroically towards the stricken ship. It captures the solitude of the deed and the fragility of the heroic endeavour.

Collection contact: RNLI Grace Darling Museum (askgracedarling@rnli.org.uk)

Kilbourn, Oliver 1904–1993 Miner Setting Prop in Low Seam (from the series ‘My Life as a Pitman’) c.1950 © Ashington Group Trustees Oil on paper on hardboard 57 x 77cm Woodhorn Museum and Northumberland Archives Kilbourn was a miner and part of the Ashington Group, often referred to as the „Pitmen Painters‟. This painting is typical of the work of the group. Kilbourn‟s collection of works, My Life as a Pitman, provides a documentary account of life as a miner. The painting shows a scene through Kilbourn‟s eyes in a way that a photograph could not.

Collection contact: Woodhorn Northumberland Collection (wow@woodhorn.org.uk)

Guzzardi, Leonardo active 1798–1800 Horatio Nelson (1758–1805), 1st Viscount Nelson 1799 Oil on canvas 216 x 129cm Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth Badly damaged when the College was bombed in 1942, this picture is one of several painted by Sicilian painter Guzzardi, about who little is known, to celebrate Nelson‟s victory at the Battle of the Nile. The portrait could not be started directly after battle as Nelson had sustained an unsightly wound above the eye during the fighting. There are several other copies by other artists but this painting was recently identified as a genuine.

Collection contact: Dr Richard Porter (01752 553740)

Museum contact:

Carse, Alexander c.1770–1843 The Village Ba’ Game 1818 Oil on canvas 89 x 133cm Dundee Art Galleries and Museums Collection (Dundee City Council) The Village Ba' Game is reputed to be the earliest painting of a football match in the world. This boisterous game between the „Uppies‟ and the „Doonies‟ was held in Jedburgh in the Scottish Borders in 1817. Carse excelled at genre painting and this work is of international importance. It has just gone out on loan to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. Collection contact: Anna Robertson and Susan Keracher (01382 307200)

North, Marianne 1830–1890 Victoria regia c.1879 Oil on board 35 x 129cm Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Marianne North is the most prolific artist represented on Your Paintings, with over 980 paintings. This Victoria regia, the largest of all water lilies, is native to South America. Discovered in the early 19th century by Father La Cueva and German born naturalist Thaddaeus Haenke (1761–1816), it was introduced to Britain in 1849, and took its name in honour of Queen Victoria. The sixth edition of the North Gallery Guide, published in 1914, tells us “the picture was not painted from nature, but from Fitch‟s splendid illustrations, and done in the fogs of a London winter ... The leaves are of enormous size, often over six feet across, and have upturned rims four or five inches high, so that the Indian mothers, who go down to the rivers to wash, place their babies on them in perfect safety.”

Collection contact: Lynn Parker (020 8332 5429)

Riley, Bridget b.1931 The Morley College Mural c.1973 © the artist Acrylic & pencil on canvas 211 x 317cm Morley College, London Morley College is an adult education college in London. Barry Till (Morley Principal 1965–1986) commissioned this painting out of a personal admiration for Bridget Riley‟s work. Riley commented: “I was initially commissioned for a mural. However, it was technically too difficult to draw huge diagonals directly on the wall so the only way to produce this was on canvas. This was then set back into wall so that it was same level as plane of wall. The commission was a great encouragement to me at the time, as my work at that moment was suffering from a lack of interest.”

Collection contact: Jane Hartwell (gallery@morleycollege.ac.uk)

Steen, Jan 1626–1679 The Doctor’s Visit c.1660 Oil on canvas on panel 70 x 56cm The University of Edinburgh Fine Art Collection Jan Steen's The Doctor's Visit is one of the finest examples of genre painting in the city. This painting appears to show an ill, feverish patient turning in bed to look at her doctor, who is in turn looking directly at the maid and past the wine proffered by her. We soon realise that the patient isn't sick in the conventional sense but sick with love for the doctor. Her own lover can be seen distantly at the window looking in on the scene. Collection contact: Jill Forrest (jill.forrest@ed.ac.uk)

Bellany, John b.1942 The Obsession © the artist/Bridgeman Art Library Oil on panel 212 x 242cm City of Edinburgh Council John Bellany was born in Port Seton, a fishing village in East Lothian. This early work depicts a group of fishermen at a gutting table. Their weather-beaten features reflect the harshness of their daily toil and battle against nature‟s forces. The composition makes strong allusions to the biblical Last Supper with the fishermen standing in for the disciples. One of the characters appears to be praying, and another clutching his bible, arms formed into a crucifix. The obsession in the title is Bellany‟s own, his striving to discover the answer to life‟s questions.

Collection contact: David Patterson (0131 529 3993)

Brueghel the younger, Pieter 1564/1565–1637/1638 The Faithless Shepherd Oil on panel 74 x 105cm Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums This is one of three versions of this subject by Brueghel and was presented in 1977 by Mrs Alice Hay of Seaton whose ancestor, Lord Hay of Seaton, it is believed, was given the painting by the Duke of Wellington. The subject of this painting is taken from the New Testament, the Gospel of St John, Chapter 10, where Christ says: “I am the good shepherd, the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. But he that is a hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep.” Collection contact: Office (01224 523 700)

Upton, John b.1933 Christ’s Entry into Brighton 1976 © the artist Oil on five hardboard panels 175 x 709cm University of Sussex A highly significant moment of student and youth culture is caught in the works of Upton. Among the crowd in Christ’s Entry into Brighton, Christ is flanked by 1960s figures Jimi Hendrix, Cassius Clay, Christine Keeler and Harold Macmillian, alongside Sussex University staff and students. The painting currently hangs in a Seminar Room. Since its founding in the 1960s, the University of Sussex has continued to build its distinguished collection of contemporary art which is a mixture of interesting commissions, donations and specially commissioned pieces.

Collection contact: Kitty Inglis (01273 678158)

unknown artist The Avalanche at Lewes, East Sussex 1836 Oil on canvas 66 x 81cm Lewes Castle and Museum Commissioned by Thomas Dicker of Lewes, this unknown artist commemorates the Lewes Avalanche of 1836, which killed eight and remains to this day the deadliest avalanche on record in the UK. Barbican House Museum, opposite Lewes castle, tells the story of Sussex throughout the ages and houses the Lewes Town model.

Collection contact: Emma O’Connor (01273 486290)

Brown, Ford Madox 1821–1893 The Last of England 1855 Oil on panel 82 x 75cm Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery Madox Brown‟s iconic painting, depicting a man and his wife leaving England for the last time with the white cliffs of Dover in the top right of the picture, is possibly the most well known of the collection. The Last of England is a good example of Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery‟s large collection of Victorian artwork and famous Pre-Raphaelite collection.

Collection contact: Brendan Flynn (0121 303 283)

Degas, Edgar 1834–1917 Jockeys before the Race 1878–1879 Oil, essence, gouache & pastel on paper 107 x 73cm The Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham In this painting Degas disregards conventional composition rules by placing a pole in the foreground that runs from the top to the bottom of the painting, dividing it vertically and slicing through the head of the nearest horse. Jockeys before the Race is one of the most striking and important paintings in The Barber Institute of Fine Art‟s collection.

Collection contact: Andrew Davies (andrewdavies@barber.org.uk)

Butler, Elizabeth 1846–1933 Scotland for Ever! 1881 Oil on canvas 101 x 194cm Leeds Museums and Galleries Best known as a painter of battle scenes Lady Elizabeth Butler‟s iconic Scotland for Ever! is one of the most popular paintings on show at Leeds Art Gallery. This painting depicts the gallant charge, swords raised, of The Scots Greys at the Battle of Waterloo. According to an eyewitness the Greys were heard calling, “Now, my boys, Scotland forever!” as they rushed past the Highland Brigade.

Collection contact: Camilla Nichol (museumsandgalleries@leeds.gov.uk)

Whiting, Henry c.1839–1931 Hatwell's 'Gallopers': Man Wrestling an Alligator Oil on panel 78 x 61cm The Fairground Heritage Trust, Devon Without doubt, the collection of fairground art at Dingles Fairground Heritage Centre in Devon is the most important of its kind in the country. It is a world-class collection of British fairground art from the 1880s to the 1980s. This is one of 4 panels on show at Dingle‟s Fairground Heritage Centre which were used to conceal the machinery of the ride, owned by the Hatwell family in the 1940s, and to decorate the bottom of the carousel of galloping horses. Collection contact: Michael Smith (01566 783425)